it was an interesting conversation where we talked about the fiscal cliff, resolving the deficit, and got inside goldman's business a bit. a lot of it was concerned with the warnings. >> if we do nothing, next year you'll have the rate of growth slow to somewhere like 3 to 5%. you'll have unemployment go up another 2% to around above 9%, and 2 million more people will lose their jobs. and we're doing nothing about it. >> it's very serious. i think the candidates know how serious it is. i think they're trying to avoid it, maybe in part because it is so consequential and serious. maybe the ideas that would have to be put forward will be unattractive to some people. obviously we're in a position where new discipline is going to have to be imposed. people are going to be disappointed in the consequence. >> they worship the god of re-election. they're figuring that out and how to duck every hot issue before november 6th. then erskine says the whirlpool of $7 trillion is going to hit us like a rainstorm. >> people are never going to understand how critical this particular time in history is